Calvin needs a haircut, but finds himself unhappy with the ones he gets from his usual barber. Hobbes offers to cut Calvin's hair for him, but ends up completely mangling it.
Tropes
- Early-Bird Cameo: Tracer Bullet makes a one-strip appearance in this arc, Calvin imagining himself as a private eye while wearing a hat to hide his haircut. The character has no real relevance to the actual arc, and is just used as the imagination gag for the single strip.
- The Gadfly: Calvin's furious about his awful haircut and chews Hobbes out for it. Hobbes points out that Calvin still owes him eight bucks for the haircut, then runs away laughing to himself as Calvin chases, making it clear that he was just trying to annoy Calvin with the comment.
- Gag Haircut: Calvin, by his own admission, looks like he's got mange when Hobbes is done with his haircut.
- Gilligan Cut: Hobbes draws a bunch of hair on Calvin's bald head to roughly simulate the look of hair, which initially makes Calvin very happy, and he's very excited to show his mom how the problem has been fixed. Cut to him in the bathtub, trying (and failing) to wash the marker off.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Calvin would be far from the first young child to try giving themselves a haircut that ends up going horribly wrong, but he seems just as unhappy about the results as anyone else, and he even asks his mom if she actually thinks he'd want to look so bad.
